Abstract:

Due to the new technologies that are coming on the market at a growing speed and of the fast technological changes of our world there is a need to continuously improve the population’s skills, knowledge and competences. Therefore, we all have to be lifelong learners in order to be up to date, to develop ourselves and sharp our skills.

There are many benefits of lifelong learning in addition to increasing job prospects and supplementing professional competence such as it helps to keep the mind sharp and improve memory, enhances self-esteem, helps us to adapt to society’s changes, helps us to make new friends as we are meeting new people during the learning activities.

To become a lifelong learner a person must have developed 21st century skills such as digital literacy, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, creativity and imagination, in order to be able to identify the learning activities he/she has to undertake in order to improve his/her knowledge and skills.

This paper investigates four 21st century skills frameworks that support lifelong learning. We present:
(1) the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project,
(2) the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
(3) the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and
(4) Partnerships 21 (P21) Framework for 21st Century Learning.

An in-depth analysis of these frameworks shows the overlaps and the differences among these frameworks in terms of proposed skills and allow us to identify important 21st century skills.

After discussing some important 21st century skills (e.g. digital literacy, communication, collaboration), we compare and discuss the role of six teaching approaches (pedagogy methods) in developing these skills. The studied approaches are Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Flipped Classroom (FC), Serious Games (SGs), Self-Directed Learning (SDL), Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and Personalised Learning (PL). Then we analyse the skills that are developed by each pedagogy.

To conclude, Re-skilling and updating competencies will be required in the near future, due to the rapid technology advancements that come in our workplace and day-to day life activities. In order to cope with these fast changes people will have to change into a lifelong learner and develop 21st century skills.

The four 21st century skills frameworks have identified a set of required 21st century skills and are presented and compared. The paper will also discuss and compare six pedagogies that the current education systems should apply in the learning and teaching process in order to ensure the development of the 21st century skills such as digital literacy, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and creativity, thus fostering long-life learning.

Keywords:

Lifelong learning, 21st century skills frameworks, 21st century pedagogies, Problem-Based Learning, Flipped Classroom, Serious Games, Self-Directed Learning.